In the latest of repercussions from the BP debacle in the Gulf of Mexico, we got word of baby dolphins washing up dead on the shores Mississippi and Alabama — at ten times the normal rate of stillborn mortality. The Sun Herald reports that 17 babies less than 3 feet in length have been found, premature or stillborn. Unfortunately, that’s only part of the story. The ocean recycles very efficiently; many more dead babies likely never made it to the shore. This being the first of the babies to be born since the spill, we have no real idea how far-reaching the devastation may be.

This is one of a score of dead baby dolphins that washed up on the shores of the Gulf earlier this week.

Dr. Moby Solangi, director of the Institute of Marine Mammal Studies, confirmed that the death rate is highly abnormal, and informs that it appears that most were born premature. Some were aborted at that time, others were stillborn. Other points made are that some of the bruising that might have made it appear to be trauma was likely from the mothers trying to push the babies to the surface and get them to breathe.

It is not uncommon to sight one, maybe two stillborn dolphins a year. That there have been a score found on shore already is pretty solid proof that this is a significant anomaly. It may also be a warning that we, too, are at risk from the oil and Corexit. Just because we don’t live IN the water doesn’t mean it’s not affecting us as well.

This is amongst the results of the use of Corexit and the oil spill itself. We see it because we notice something as large as a baby dolphin floating on in to shore. To be sure, many millions of other living things have been lost, and their offspring dead. As Protect The Ocean warned last summer, the use of Corexit has made a tragic event into a full-blown disaster of epic proportions. We are just now beginning to see the effects of this myopic decision. Corporate greed must never be allowed to choose and control the choices made in our planet’s waters again.

Scientists continue to discover even greater areas of Gulf floor covered in oil that was kept from rising by Corexit. In the places where it is found, what should be breeding grounds for the next generation of ocean flora and fauna to come, the ocean floor is lifeless, dead. Some may want to claim that this is not empirical proof. We cannot afford to wait for any more decisive evidence than has already been seen.

Remember: As go the oceans, so go we all. What happens in the Gulf effects every one of us, eventually. Please support efforts to ban the use of Corexit in the States and abroad, as has already been successfully done in the UK a decade ago.

As the dolphin families mourn the loss of their infant children, we mourn their loss as our own, and hope that the ocean is able to recover soon from the horrors we have released upon it.

The “Gulf Science Monitor” (Issue 6) recently delivered this gem into my Protect The Ocean email inbox. It claims that NOAA and the FDA have developed a new test to detect Corexit in seafood. According to the email and report, all the seafood in reopened waters is safe to eat. How can I tell they’re lying to me? THEIR LIPS ARE MOVING!

Corexit was reported to be lethal to fish fry at just 2.6 ppm over 96 hours. Yet in the second paragraph in the Gulf Science Monitor announcement, they claim that 100 ppm is safe for finfish, but 500 PPM is safe for shrimp, crabs and oysters. WHAT?! Maybe they think we’re five times as stupid. The U.S. government now claims that 50 times that concentration is safe for people who eat finfish, and 250 times that is supposedly safe for those who eat shrimp? I don’t believe it, people — not for a minute! [Read more...]

BoingBoing just posted an article sourced from Al Jazeera that confirms what we’ve been warning of (and reporting about): Corexit is causing people to become sick. What’s more, it’s forming new ways to be dangerous, both in chemical compounds and the genetic mutations it creates. Carla Mayes, a political activist contact of ours with close ties to people at the Gulf, has been keeping us abreast of the many reported cases of illness. Now this, and it seems the soup just keeps on getting thicker!

One source, Naman, states “The dispersants are being added to the water and are causing chemical compounds to become water soluble, which is then given off into the air, so it is coming down as rain, in addition to being in the water and beaches of these areas of the Gulf.” The article goes on to state that “residents are reporting brown vomit, brown urine, copious diarrhea, skin rashes, sore throats and even internal hemorrhaging.” The number of cases is increasing, rather that declining.

Veteran RN Trisha Springstead told Al Jazeera “They have sore throats, respiratory problems, neurological problems, lesions, sores, and ulcers. These people have been poisoned and they are dying. Drugs aren’t going to help these people. They need to be detoxed.”

Meanwhile, the White House seems to be singing a country song, “That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it.” Though their claims that 75% of the oil was miraculously evaporated were obviously inaccurate, they’ve yet to come back and address the issue. It’s as though they feel that since the oil leak has supposedly been plugged (what about the OTHER leaks?) that there is no longer an issue to be dealt with. Protect The Ocean continues to receive weekly BULL-etins from Deepwater Command Central with tedious rhetoric amounting to nothing. THe latest from them is that the State of Alabama’s Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and others are hosting a public meeting on November 11, 2010. The purpose? To explain to the Little People what methods they’re using to ASSESS the situation, and explain opportunities for public to help with clean-up. Don’t you feel better, knowing that they’re still busily assessing it? HOW ABOUT SOME ACTION? But to be fair, that’s at a state level. The Feds stopped DOING anything months ago.

We very much wish that we had better news, but the bottom line reality is that BP has soiled our waters, and nobody’s doing a damned thing about it. Meanwhile more people are getting sick and sicker, and nobody’s doing anything about THAT either.

Post Script: The Executive Order Recognizing the Gulf Coast as a national treasure, on October 5, 2010 President Obama issued an Executive Order creating the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Task Force, continuing the Administration’s ongoing commitment to the region. The mission of the Task Force is to efficiently integrate Federal efforts with those of local stakeholders and state and tribal governments so as to better implement Gulf Coast ecosystem restoration and to facilitate appropriate accountability and support throughout the restoration process. The President’s Executive Order establishing the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Task Force is available at http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2010/10/05/executive-order-gulf-coast-ecosystem-restoration-task-force

On November 8th, only a little over a month from the date of the above Executive Order (which is only God-knows-how-many months late in coming,) there will be the FIRST meeting, from 11:30am through 4:pm, in Pensacola, FL, of the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Task Force. Feel better yet?